Conventional aircraft communication systems including operational communications systems onboard the aircraft, sensors for engines, landing gear and proximity to nearby objects such as vehicles and other aircraft require complex electrical wiring and harness fabrication, which adds weight to the aircraft and in turn increases fuel costs. Further, these systems are unreliable and difficult to reconfigure, and rely on double or triple redundancy to mitigate the risk of cut or defective wiring.
The risk of cut or defective wiring can be reduced with the use of wireless connectivity for wireless avionics devices. However, in many cases the spectrum to be used by the wireless avionics system is already in use by a Radio Altimeter (RA) system as the frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radio altimeter signal sweeps the spectrum.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below, it will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the specification, there is a need in the art for monitoring the signal and determining the parameters necessary to detect the available spectrum for establishing wireless connectivity in the wireless avionics system.